[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 25, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H2812]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  SECRETARY CLINTON'S SILENCE IN CHINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, today the State Department released its annual 
Human Rights Report, an exhaustive report which documents the human 
rights abuses of countries worldwide.
  The report highlights several disturbing global trends in the area of 
human rights and goes on to say that these trends ``confirm the 
continuing need for vigorous United States diplomacy to act and speak 
out,'' and, yet, America's leading diplomat, Secretary of State 
Clinton, could not find it in herself to publicly press the Chinese 
Government on their human rights abuses during her recent visit.
  Which begs the question, has the situation improved so dramatically 
so as to justify relegating human rights to the back burner? Was last 
year a banner year for the Chinese Government marked by tremendous 
reforms and greater freedom? Has a new day dawned for the people of 
China? The answer is no. We need look no further than the State 
Department's own report that came out today that says such notions 
could not be further from the truth and would be laughable if the 
reality of the situation wasn't so sobering.
  A few excerpts from the report:
  ``The Government of China's human rights record remained poor and 
worsened in some areas. The government . . . tightly controlled freedom 
of speech, the press (including the Internet), assembly, movement and 
association.''
  ``Authorities committed extrajudicial killings and torture, coerced 
confessions of prisoners, and used forced labor. In addition, the 
Chinese government increased detention and harassment of dissidents.''
  For people of faith, the situation was especially grim:
  ``Authorities disrupted church meetings and retreats; detained, beat, 
and harassed church leaders and church members.''
  ``Harassment of unregistered Catholic bishops, priests, and 
laypersons continued, including government surveillance and 
detentions.''
  This is the State Department's report that came out today.
  For North Korean refugees the report had this to say:
  ``Authorities stepped up efforts to locate, detain, and forcibly 
return North Koreans to North Korea,'' basically gulags where they will 
be persecuted.
  On forced labor it said: ``Forced labor remained a serious problem,'' 
and on and on. I am running because of the time.
  For Tibet, here is what the report said:
  ``The government's human rights record in Tibetan areas of China 
deteriorated severely during the year. Authorities continued to commit 
serious human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary arrest, 
extrajudicial detention,'' and then it goes on with much others.
  The list goes on. I marvel that there can be such a disconnect 
between the systematic documented abuses of the Chinese government, the 
importance, as stated in the report, of the U.S. Government speaking 
out on behalf of those living under repression and the shocking silence 
of Secretary Clinton. The Chinese Government could barely contain their 
excitement about Secretary Clinton's silence.
  AP reported that ``China gave U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham 
Clinton a glowing review.'' No wonder they gave her a glowing review 
because she didn't say anything following her weekend visit, during 
which she steered clear of human rights issues.
  China doesn't want our Secretary to speak on human rights, but that's 
the very reason why they should speak out on human rights.
  In fact, Mr. Speaker, silence in itself is a message, not just to the 
Chinese Government but to the Chinese people whose struggles are 
outlined in grim details.
  Martin Luther King said, and I quote, ``In the end, we will remember 
not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.'' For the 
Secretary of State to be silent on the issue of persecution in China, 
where there can be a number, can you imagine, Mr. Speaker, how a 
Catholic bishop, or a Buddhist monk or a Protestant pastor or a Muslim 
Uighur was in prison and the prison guards came around and said, ``See, 
your Secretary of State was in town and she never even raised the 
issue.''
  The way to do this, Mr. Speaker, in ending, is the way Ronald Reagan 
did it in the eighties. Every time President Reagan would go or any 
Secretary of State would go to Moscow, or whatever, they would speak 
out on behalf of human rights. Our embassies were islands of freedom.
  And so I ask the Secretary to make it clear: Is this a retreat on 
human rights? Did you just make a mistake? But the sound and the 
silence is reverberating, and it will also have an impact on dictators 
around the world because they will see the Secretary going to China and 
not speaking out. Ahmadinejad will do what he wants with regard to the 
Baha'is, Egypt will do what it wants with regard to the Coptic 
Christians and on and on, and the world will be a much more dangerous 
place.

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